When a poem doesn't work, the first question to ask yourself is, 'Am I telling the truth?'

Write to amuse? What an appalling suggestion! I write to make people anxious and miserable and to worsen their indigestion.

Some socks are loners They can't live in pairs.

Bloody Christmas, here again, let us raise a loving cup, peace on earth, goodwill to men, and make them do the washing up.

I have a theory that if you've got the kind of parents who want to send you to boarding school, you're probably better off at boarding school.

The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand it.

Bloody men are like bloody buses - you wait for about a year and as soon as one approaches your stop two or three others appear.

I like buying clothes, especially as I get a tax-deductible allowance.

The interesting thing is that you don't often meet a poet who doesn't have a sense of humour, and some of them do keep it out of their poems because they're afraid of being seen as light versifiers.

I was single for a long time and felt very much alone in the world, and talk of family values upset me very much at that phase in my life, because I used to think: 'What about people like me?

I think it's a question which particularly arises over women writers: whether it's better to have a happy life or a good supply of tragic plots.

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

I sort of feel like people are not that honest about their own parenting. Take any teenage household; tell me there is not yelling and conflict.

If I can make programmes when I'm 95, that would be fine. But I would think I'll have had enough by then.

You don't write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you're really doing it, that's all you're doing: writing.

A leader's job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be

Without big words, how could many people say small things?

Clarity breeds mastery. And the goals you set drive the actions you'll take.

It's nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of.

Praise is God's sunlight in the heart. It destroys sin germs. It ripens the fruits of the Spirit. It is the oil of gladness that lubricates life's activities.